Get inside my head #4
70 X 7 THE MEAL ACT XXIV, ARTAIDS FUNDACIÓ JOAN MIRÓ, 2006–2011
Lucy + Jorge imagined the twenty-fourth Act of 70 x 7 The Meal in Amsterdam 2006 and it was finally staged at the Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona in 2011 within the context of the group exhibition, You are not Alone. The exhibition was supported by the ArtAids a foundation founded by philanthropist Han Nefkens, to raise public consciousness and to encourage involvement in projects aimed at preventing and fighting Aids. The 70 x 7 The Meal brought together artists, new patrons and friends of the ArtAids Foundation. Lucy + Jorge Orta created a set of seven Royal Limoges porcelain plates, each with complementary symbols: the artichoke, a measuring device, and a colour spectrum of the artists’ signature ‘contextual colours’. Each of the colours represents a specific issue, place or historical event that has moved the artists over the years. The graphic measuring stick references different levels or gauges relating to the measurement of social behavioural patterns. The artichoke with its endless leaves that reveal a tender heart hidden within.
Image courtesy The Artists and ArtAids Foundation Amsterdam
70 X 7 THE MURMURING BANQUET, 2007
In the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Lucy + Jorge Orta staged an hour-long performance for twenty performers from twenty different language groups. Audiences visiting the BOZAR were confronted by a table setting with the guests seemingly engaged deep in conversation. The guests, dancers from the Charleroi Danses choreographic school, recited quotations on water scarcity issues in their native language, occasionally changing seats throughout the meal in an attempt to find someone to understand their plight. To the onlookers assembled around the multi-lingual debate, the twenty guests murmuring amongst themselves created a harmony of opinions despite the fact that different point of views could not be understood.
70 x 7 The Murmuring Banquet was commissioned to celebrate the UN Art for the Environment initiative Hosted by the United Nations Environment Program and the Natural World Museum, a programme designed to utilise the universal language of art as a catalyst to unite people in action and thought, and to empower individuals, communities, and leaders to focus on environmental issues.
Image courtesy Lucy + Jorge Orta
70 X 7 THE MEAL ACT XXIX, LA VENARIA REALE, TORINO, 2008
The twenty-ninth Act of 70 x 7 The Meal was staged inside the historical Savoy palace of Venaria Reale. 150 guests were assembled to launch the Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus initiative in support of the Andean potato research project founded by the Cooperativa Cauqueva (Cooperativa Agropecuaria y Artesanal Union Quebrada y Valles), situated in Northern Argentina. The symbol of the meal was the ubiquitous potato, a vital food staple of Andean populations. A potato soup recipe imagined by Lucy + Jorge Orta was transcribed onto the Royal Limoges porcelain plates along with delicate drawings of the vegetable species. The menu designed in collaboration with chef Alfredo Russo, from Dolce Stil Novo restaurant, took the form of a ‘democratic’ meal. The soup was chosen because it crosses across all socio-economic groups with different staple origins. During the different courses of soups, of various textures, tastes and colours, performers peeled, chopped and sliced ingredients for a potato soup from a mountain of vegetables piled across the dining tables. At the end of the evening, small bags of produce were handed out to guests in calico cotton goodie bags along with the recipe inscribed on the porcelain edition.
Image courtesy The Artists and Family Events
70 X 7 THE MEAL ACT XXXIV, MURAL ARTS PHILADELPHIA, 2013
To mark its 30th-anniversary Mural Arts Philadelphia commissioned Lucy + Jorge Orta to create the most ambitious Act of 70 x 7 The Meal, an open-air lunch for 900 guests in the heart of the city of Philadelphia. The meal drew from a year-long public programme entitled What We Sow, exploring the loss of biodiversity –heirloom species– and their effect on global health, with a particular focus on plant species in danger of disappearing in the US. As well as working closely with local farmers and restauranteurs across Philadelphia, creative activities took place within different communities, designed to draw in new audiences and connect them directly with the issues at stake. Activities included heirloom seed and recipe exchanges, rural and urban farms engaged in heirloom plantations; agricultural college open days, city gardening workshops, food tasting, collective cooking, urban markets, public conferences and academic papers were written, with a focus on species loss and the vital role of food biodiversity for a healthier food system.
On the day of 70 x 7 The Meal, a single table was originally planned to stretch the full length of the Independence Historical Park, but due to the government shutdown, on 5 October 2013, 150 volunteers re-seated the 900 guests in the heart of the urban landscape, at the Thomas Paine Plaza. Tables were set with the Royal Limoges porcelain edition and table runners incorporating Lucy + Jorge Orta’s drawings of heirloom fruit and vegetables. At the end of the meal, each guest took home their porcelain plate contributing to a ripple effect of conversations from the table, to the civic space, to the private sphere, and back to the table. The menu of heirloom produce created by Philadelphia’s star Chef Marc Vetri was served on giant shared platters. Guests from a huge diversity of the city’s residents shared the communal tables with others awarded invitations by lottery; public space became the stage for intermingling citizen voices. And for those that couldn’t attend the meal, simultaneous luncheons were staged across Philadelphia so that hundreds more people could take part in the action and discussions, the estimated reach in the eight-day build-up to the public event was just under 400,000 people.
70 X 7 THE MEAL ACT XXI, NEUDE SQUARE UTRECHT, 2005
As part of the celebrations leading up to the anniversary of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, the Centraal Museum in partnership with Pleinmuseum commissioned the twenty-first Act of 70 x 7 The Meal, an open-air pot-luck buffet in the bustling Neude Square of Utrecht, a popular district of bars and restaurants. Lucy + Jorge Orta chose to invite seven members of seven local multi-ethnic groups, who in turn invited members of their communities. For the menu, each guest brought home-cooked food, shared recipes and storytelling with passers-by as gestures of cooperation and friendship. The Royal Limoges edition and table runner created for the occasion emulated messages of peace through texts, symbols and poetry in different local languages.
Image courtesy Lucy + Jorge Orta